Volume 1: Males Come and Go, People Pay Attention to Chapter 214: A Net (Guaranteed First Update)
Chapter 214: A Net
The training base borrowed by Zenit St. Petersburg in Manchester to prepare for the UEFA Cup final is called the "Carrington Training Base", but it must be made clear that this is not the Carrington training base of Manchester United, but Manchester City. Although the two are very close, they must not be confused.
How close is Manchester United's Carrington to Manchester City's Carrington?
Sun Jihai once again kicked the football into the sky with a big foot during training, and it went straight into the sky without a trace. The head coach at the time, Kevin Keegan, shouted angrily: "You go to Manchester United to pick up the ball!"
Look, it's that close, just a big foot away.
However, compared with the glamorous and famous neighbor next door, Manchester City's Carrington training base looks a bit dilapidated and low-key.
The team is not in a good place at the moment in the Premier League either. After the former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra bought the team last year, he spent a lot of money and prepared to follow the example of Chelsea boss Roman Abramovich.
Unexpectedly, he was deeply involved in a lawsuit and was wanted by the Thai government, so he could only hunt around. As for the team he bought, he naturally has no intention of managing it. In addition, his overseas accounts have been frozen, and he can no longer spend money to support the team.
So the dilapidation of the training ground is more in line with the current predicament of this team.
Zenit only borrowed Manchester City's training base, not their dormitory. The team usually stays in a hotel in the city, between the only Manchester Municipal Stadium and the Carrington training base.
Every day they take the bus to Carrington for training, have lunch at the training base at noon, and take the bus back to the hotel after training in the afternoon.
This life will continue until August thirteenth. On August 13th, they will go to the Manchester Municipal Stadium for training to adapt to the venue. At the same time, the pre-match press conference will also be held at this time.
The Manchester City club lent the training base to Zenit, not to say that they themselves looked for another place. In fact, there is only one training field for Zenit, which does not affect the normal training of Manchester City's various teams.
In other words, the two teams are training under the same roof.
The Zenit players got off the bus and then had to go through the perimeter of the field where Manchester City's first team trained before they could walk to their training ground-there was only a layer of barbed wire separating the two sides. This distance is quite close, so close that the players of Manchester City can look at them with a little curiosity, and they also look at the players of Manchester City and the training base with curiosity.
The only thing Chen Yingxiong knows about Manchester City is that he knows that this team has a Chinese compatriot of his own playing for it-Sun Jihai's name is known to everyone in the Chinese football circle, and everyone knows it. Before me, he was the most successful overseas player in China.
Of course, this title may have to be given up a bit now. There are already voices in China saying that although Chen Yingxiong has only appeared in our field of vision for less than two seasons, he is already the most successful overseas player in China. At least Sun Jihai didn't win the league's top scorer, didn't he score eleven goals in the UEFA Cup...
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"Hi, Sun." Teammate Dunn (richard_dunne) hugged Sun Jihai's neck and pointed to the training ground next door. "Look at that person, is he from your country?"
Sun Jihai looked at his gestures, the target person was easy to find, he saw the big black-haired man almost at a glance.
He nodded: "Yes, Richard, he is Chinese just like me."
In fact, you don't need to look, Sun Jihai also knows who the other party is talking about. Chen Yingxiong, a kid who has been very popular in China's domestic media recently. Playing in the Russian league, he is very good at scoring goals. He is best at scoring goals with his head. This can be seen from his figure.
In fact, Sun Jihai didn't pay much attention to the domestic media. He knew the information about Chen Yingxiong because his agent would nagging him in his ear from time to time. But knowing this person is because of the UEFA Cup.
The kid did really well in the UEFA Cup and the goal against Everton got him covered in the English media. It's no big deal to score a goal in the UEFA Cup, even a defender like myself has scored it. But being able to score goals in a row is amazing. Entering 2008, Sun Jihai found that the news about this child in the European media began to increase gradually.
Until half a month ago, he performed a hat-trick in the semi-final against Bayern Munich, which shocked the whole of Europe. Only then did he realize that this kid was so awesome.
But such an awesome kid has never been favored by the Chinese Football Association. It made him a little weird.
Isn't Chinese football engaged in some Olympic strategy? They recruited almost all outstanding young players of the right age into the Olympic team, why didn't they recruit Chen Yingxiong? It stands to reason that he is also a player of the right age...
What Sun Jihai didn't know was that Chen Yingxiong was not registered with the Chinese Football Association at all... So to make him play for the country, he had to go through a lot of formalities, which was troublesome. Besides, there is another factor that makes the Chinese Football Association feel apprehensive about recruiting Chen Yingxiong - the tattoo on this kid's entire back!
In the past, the Chinese Football Association stipulated that players with tattoos and dyed hair were not allowed to be selected for the national team. Now the rules have been relaxed, and players with tattoos on their arms and hair that is not pure black have also begun to appear in national teams. But a tattoo as large as Chen Yingxiong's is really eye-catching.
In today's China, there is still a relatively deep-rooted concept-tattoos are only done by local gangsters and gangsters. If you have a tattoo as a player, isn't that a hooligan, a rogue, and a gangster? Isn't this blatantly discrediting the image of the Chinese national team and pouring dirty water on Chinese football?
Of course, in fact, everyone knows the virtues and image of Chinese players... It's just that we still have to pay attention to the face.
Dunn patted Sun Jihai on the shoulder: "I heard that he is very good. He has already caught up with Alan Shearer in the UEFA Cup scorer list! This must be good news for your national team!"
Sun Jihai smiled wryly: "He hasn't been selected for any national team yet."
It was Dunn's turn to be surprised: "Why?"
Sun Jihai shook his head helplessly: "I don't know..."
From the bottom of his heart, he certainly hopes that such an outstanding striker can become a teammate with him, play for the country, win glory for the country and so on.
But based on his understanding of the Chinese football circle and his personal experience in the national team, he knows very well that with Chen Yingxiong's personality, it is difficult to survive in the national team.
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The players of Manchester City are taking advantage of the training interval to look at the players of Zenit, and the players of Zenit are also looking at each other.
Chen Yingxiong found Sun Jihai in the crowd.
In the past, he could only watch it on TV. In the youth team, he listened to his teammates showing off the first-team Wang Yongjun talking to Sun Jihai in the national team. At that time, the name symbolized the Chinese national team and represented a height that he could not achieve at all.
Now, this person who could only be looked up to by him before, is only separated from him by a barbed wire wall.
Fate is wonderful.
When those big brothers and Sun Jihai showed off their relationship in front of them, they never imagined that they could score a hat-trick against Kahn, Lucio, Demichelis and Van Bommel, right? He never imagined that his name could be put together with a legendary superstar like Alan Shearer who is taller than Sun Jihai by an unknown number of ranks, right?
"Okay, don't look at it, don't look at it! What's there to see? You don't come here for sightseeing!" The assistant coach Porter's voice sounded. "Get ready for training—!!"
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Sun Jihai would enter the field and turn his gaze to the training ground next door, and then pay attention to the tall compatriot.
He couldn't suppress his curiosity.
All he knows about this man is from the media or from other people's mouths. He heard that he can score goals, that he performed well, and that he is in excellent form...
He had never seen it in person, not even a broadcast of his game.
He didn't know how this man played, how he scored goals.
So he was curious.
At the training ground next door, Zenit is practicing set-piece tactics.
He found that Chen Yingxiong was the absolute core of set-piece tactics. No matter what the tactics are, the football must always be sent to him. And his performance is also very eye-catching, living up to expectations. Can always easily head the football into the goal.
You can see he's heading the ball very well, as much as he knows it.
And different from what I thought, this person's personality is very lively and detached, and he gets along very well with his teammates. Unlike ordinary Chinese players, he is a different kind. He has seen a lot of Chinese players, and they are big brothers in domestic football clubs, but when he goes abroad, he is like a rookie who has never seen the world. He has to be silent and difficult to integrate into the team. Those methods that allowed them to thrive in domestic clubs will not work at all in foreign clubs.
He didn't know how Chen Yingxiong could get along with his teammates. He can also joke and chat with his teammates now, but that is in exchange for nearly ten years of hard work in England alone.
What an outlier!
When Sun Jihai finished training, Zenit's training was still in progress. He already planned to watch the live broadcast of the UEFA Cup final at home on the middle of the week.
Just cheer on your compatriots. There are not many Chinese players who can continue to stay in Europe. His contract expires in June this year. The club is unwilling to renew his contract, and he does not want to go back. He also wants to go to other teams for luck.
It's not easy to mix...
Just as he was thinking about it, he heard cheers coming from the training ground next door, and turned his head to look. Chen Yingxiong scored another goal in the team training game.
Well, no. At least this kid in front of me is better than us...
Naples... a Serie A team... I couldn't get a contract extension from Manchester City after working so hard, but this kid has already transferred to Naples, a Serie A team with a high profile.
He shouldn't need to cheer himself up.
Let's see with our own eyes how he is better than us, right? Why is he better than us.
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***, the first volume is coming to an end, counting the UEFA Cup final, there are still two games to come to an end.
In the new volume, Chen Yingxiong will go to the new map of Italy to expand the territory. What kind of shock will a player with his unique personality bring to Italian football?
At the same time, Naples will also be the place where he is known more by the whole of Europe. Let's see him, a giant bear from the north, turn Europe upside down!
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